Email & SMS Marketing

While most of the talk revolves around social media these days, research shows email is still king when it comes to attracting customers for your business.

Social media is an extremely valuable tool, particularly for branding, customer interaction and engagement, but it’s not the best way to drive sales. According to a recent study by analytics firm Custora, customer acquisition via email has quadrupled in the last four years and now accounts for almost 7% of customer acquisitions, while Facebook and Twitter lag some distance behind. Organic search is the most powerful acquisition channel, accounting for 16% of customers acquired. Importantly, customers that originate via email also tend to shop and spend more than customers from Facebook or Twitter.

Email is effective because it’s permission-based. The people on your email list have given you the go-ahead to send them messages – they’ve ‘opted in’. And, with the prevalence of smartphones and tablets, they’re always listening. In fact, email is the number one activity for people on their phones. People check their emails constantly, wherever they are, and that enables you to stay connected.

Mobile devices can make email an even more powerful marketing and customer-acquisition channel. By cleverly combining SMS with email marketing businesses are generating exponential returns on their marketing efforts. A simple in-store display that reads “text us your email address to get 10% off your next purchase” can effortlessly grow your email subscriber list while helping you to build greater customer loyalty.

The rub – rather than chasing the latest ‘shiny object’ businesses should invest more in email. Email works and that makes it more important than ever. Ultimately those who leverage email most effectively will be the big winners.

Email marketing works.

It has a large, engaged audience – 72% of internet users use email daily. In total there were 2.5 billion email users worldwide in 2013.

It drives revenue – People who buy products marketed through email, spend more than non-email purchasers. Email’s ROI is far greater than that of search advertising and better than any other direct marketing channel.

It reduces costs – Email is significantly cheaper compared with direct mail as well as other more modern forms of direct marketing such as sms or pay-per-click.

It’s measurable – It’s easy to gain insight into what has and hasn’t worked via metrics such as click through rates, open rates, bounces and unsubscribe rates, so you can improve future campaign results.

It offers immediate results – Approximately 76.9% of emails that are opened are done so within 24 hours of being sent. One third of these are opened in the first hour.

Getting started…

Building a brand, promoting your business and measuring results has never been easier. Whether it’s a monthly email newsletter or an integrated email, SMS and social media marketing campaign we can help.